Follower, Disciple, Servant Many people call themselves Christian, but I wonder how many really are. Christian means different things to different people. Do you call yourself a Christian? Some people call themselves a Christian because they go to church once or twice a year. Or perhaps their parents are Christians, and they assume they inherited […]
Who Is Jesus? Today’s passage: Luke 9:1–27 Focus verse:“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.” (Luke 9:20) Jesus asks his disciples an interesting question, “Who do people say I am?” This is an easy question that they don’t have to think about. They quickly give him […]
A Grand Adventure Awaits Us but Only If We Leave What We Have Behind The first chapter of Mark talks about Jesus calling his disciples. As he walks along the shore, he comes across two brothers fishing. Jesus says, “Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people” (Mark 1:16-18, NIV). […]
Jesus Assures John the Baptist Today’s passage: Luke 7:18–35 Focus verse: “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard.” (Luke 7:22) John the Baptist appears three times in Luke’s biography of Jesus. First, Luke writes about John’s birth and the events that lead up to it. Next, Luke records John’s baptism […]
Don’t Let Familiarity Produce Complacency In the Bible, the gospel writers often say that the people were astonished with Jesus. But how much does Jesus astonish us today? Astonish means to be filled with sudden wonder or amazement. Does Jesus fill us with sudden wonder? When we think of Jesus, are we amazed at who […]
Don’t Be Fooled by Fake Definitions Too many people who call themselves a Christian aren’t. Not really. For one reason or another, they grab on to the title. But they fall short of what it means. In truth, they’re nothing more than a cultural Christian. They’re Christian in name only. The word Christian can be […]
A Figure that Signifies Foundation We’ve covered the numbers three and seven in the Bible. Let’s now look at the number twelve. It occurs frequently but mainly references two parallel concepts: Jacob’s twelve sons and Jesus’s twelve disciples. We can consider the number twelve as foundational in the Bible. Twelve is the basis for government […]
What Is Versus What Should Be As I read and study the Bible, one common thread I’m always looking for is passages that will inform how the church should function. I want to align what we do at church with what Scripture teaches. Too often, however, our church practice isn’t all that biblical. Instead, we […]
5 Perspectives We Need to Change We’ve come to accept what happens at church as normal. It’s what most churches do, and what most attendees expect. Yet we’ll do well to consider our church practices and contrast them with a more critical perspective of church priorities. Here are five considerations of present realities compared to […]
Go and Make Disciples Today’s passage: Matthew 28:18–20 Focus verse: “Go and make disciples of all nations.” (Matthew 28:19) As Jesus prepares to return to heaven, he has one final bit of instruction for his disciples. He commissions them to continue what he started and tell others the good news about how he died in […]